purposelessness

English

Etymology

Etymology tree
English purposeless
Proto-Germanic *-in-
Proto-Indo-European *-h₂
Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂
Proto-Indo-European *-yéti
Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti
Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ti
Proto-Germanic *-ōną
Proto-Germanic *-inōną
Proto-Indo-European *-dyé-der.
Proto-Germanic *-atjaną
Proto-Indo-European *-tus
Proto-Germanic *-þuz
Proto-Germanic *-assuz
Proto-Germanic *-inassuz
Proto-West Germanic *-nassī
Old English -nes
Middle English -nesse
English -ness
English purposelessness

    From purposeless + -ness.

    Noun

    purposelessness (uncountable)

    1. The state of being purposeless.
      Near-synonyms: pointlessness, meaninglessness, uselessness
      • 6 May 2023, Rachel Cooke, “It was ludicrous but also magnificent: the coronation stirred every emotion”, in The Guardian‎[1], archived from the original on 17 October 2026:
        he used to be plain Charles, a vessel for moaning and waiting and a certain kind of purposelessness.

    Translations

    This page is issued from Wiktionary. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.